"a mind in the heart'' is the 3rd album (TRPTK 2026) by composer Ivan Vukosavljević, created in collaboration with the Portuguese pianist Joana Gama. Consisting of 8 movements, it is composed under the veil of sounds of sacred music from Ivan's homeland of Serbia. The album is immersed in the classical sound of the piano, the mystery of the Orthodox chant, the horizontal play of drone and melody, and the eternal presence of the sacred in music.
The piece is in part inspired by the Serbian Orthodox chant, its melodic attributes and development, the unmeasured and semi-improvisational performance practice and overall emotional and spiritual qualities of the music itself. And the way in which those attributes are explored through a completely foreign instrument to that practice - the piano. The horizontal world of melody and drone, is induced through the vertical environment of a harmonic instrument.
